US STOCKS-Futures higher with earnings in focus

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* Futures: Dow 18 pts, S&P 1.25 pts, Nasdaq 3.5 pts

By Sruthi Shankar

Oct 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were slightly higher on Thursday, with investors bracing for a flood of major corporate results in one of the busiest days for the third-quarter earnings season.

* Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Intel are among the biggest corporate names set to report results later in the day.

* Investors are also keeping an eye on a European Central Bank meeting, where it is expected to announce a plan to cut back on its bond-buying stimulus.

* Earnings so far have been largely positive, with 72.1 percent of the 165 S&P 500 companies that reported as of Wednesday topping expectations and matching the average for the past four quarters.

* However, with U.S. indexes at record levels, investors are taking a closer look at earnings to see if they justify stretched valuations.

* Wall Street fell on Wednesday, with the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 indexes suffering their worst day in seven weeks, on a batch of soft quarterly earnings and a rise in bond yields.

* President Donald Trump was still considering keeping current Fed Chair Janet Yellen in the position, he said in a Fox Business interview. Trump is expected to announce his Fed chair candidate before his Asian trip in early November.

* A Labor Department report is likely to show weekly jobless claims increased to 235,000 for the week ended Oct. 21, after falling to its lowest level in more than 44 years the week before. The report is due at 8:30 a.m. ET